CLEMSON, S.C. — Cole Murphy trudged along the sideline, taking shortened practice kicks with every other stride for several steps. Then he paced back and forth, dropping his head at times as he spoke with punter Sterling Hofrichter.

He had just pushed a 30-yard field goal wide right, keeping Syracuse scoreless on its best scoring chance in a 54-0 loss to No. 3 Clemson in South Carolina.

It’s the first time a Dino Babers-led team has ever failed to score a point. But the miss went beyond just Saturday for Murphy. It was his seventh miss in nine attempts going back as far as Syracuse’s win over Connecticut in Week 4.

“It was disappointing that he missed that,” Babers said. “There’s no doubt. But we still have complete confidence in Cole.”

Murphy was not made available to the media after the game or on Tuesday before the game.

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Murphy was put on the Lou Groza Award watch list for the country’s best kicker before the season, but is just 8-for-16 thus far. He’s also sent four kickoffs out of bounds this year.

He did hit a surprise onside kick well to open the second half, but Clemson’s Andrew Armstrong jumped on it before it bounced 10 yards, like it looked like it would.

“You say he’s struggling, I think he’s doing OK,” Babers said at his press conference on Monday. “Cole is our kicker. We’ll stay with him until he gets it right.”

Published on November 5, 2016 at 9:56 pm

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